1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charger with a data backup function and a cellular phone data backup device that read out data stored in the internal memory of a cellular phone and store them.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular phones are used very frequently for business purposes and personal communication nowadays and hence are now common means for communication. Cellular phones have various ancillary functions. Among those functions, a function of storing party-on-the-other-end data such as a telephone number and a function of storing data relating to the profile of an individual are very useful for calling or referring to an intended party. Particularly in the case where a cellular phone is used for a business purpose, party-on-the-other-end data themselves can also be used as customer data and hence are important to the user.
Always carried by users, cellular phones are prone to fail and be lost. Therefore, where many party-on-the-other-end data are stored in a cellular phone, they need to be managed so as not to be scattered and lost by storing them at intervals. For example, this is currently done in such a manner that party-on-the-other-end data or personal data are stored by connecting a cellular phone to a personal computer via a dedicated device.
However, in the method of storing party-on-the-other-end data or the like of a cellular phone in a computer, the user has to incorporate a device driver or use utility software. As such, this method is not easy to use particularly to users who are not familiar with handling of computers. Further, if a computer has not been booted yet when a user wants to store party-on-the-other-end data or the like there, he needs to boot the computer only for that purpose, which is very cumbersome.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems that arise in using cellular phones. The present inventors have realized that by adding, to the charger of a cellular phone, a function of storing party-on-the-other-end data and personal data of the cellular phone, such data would easily be stored whenever necessary. An object of the invention is therefore to provide a cellular phone charger with a data backup function and a data backup device for a charger capable of storing, with very simple manipulations, data of a cellular phone that need to be stored such as party-on-the-other-end data.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a charger to be connected to a cellular phone having a memory to charge a battery of the cellular phone comprises a backup memory; a charging control unit for converting an external voltage into a charging voltage and supplying the charging voltage to the battery of the cellular phone; and a telephone memory control unit for accessing the memory of the cellular phone. The telephone memory control unit reads out data stored in the memory of the cellular phone and writes them to the backup memory, and reads out data stored in the backup memory and writes them to the memory of the cellular phone.
According to a second aspect of the invention, a data backup device to intervene between a cellular phone having a memory and a charger for supplying charging power to a battery of the cellular phone comprises a backup memory; a logic control circuit for performing control so as to read out data stored in the memory of the cellular phone, and for performing control so as to write data read out from the backup memory to the memory of the cellular phone; a memory control circuit for writing the data read out from the memory of the cellular phone to the backup memory, and for reading out the data stored in the backup memory; and an interface for performing matching of electrical characteristics between the charger and the cellular phone, and for controlling signal timing.
The invention as described above makes it possible to back up party-on-the-other-end data or personal data stored in a cellular phone or re-store backup data in the cellular phone in charging the cellular phone Therefore, the user can update backup data at intervals in daily use without recognizing backup operations. Further, the user can easily handle the charger or the data backup device even if he has no special knowledge about it.